English Math Science Social Studies

DSA Course Guide

2018-2019 School Year

The following courses have both an honors and non honors section available. All DSA students will be put in the honors section. Students will have the first four weeks of each semester to decide if they want to switch to the non honors portion of the class. Their teacher and class period will stay the same – just the work load will lessen.

English Math Science Social Studies

English 1 Math 2 Integrated Biology Geography

English 2 Math 3 Integrated Chemistry Civics

PreCalculus Physics US History

Marine Biology

Anatomy & Physiology

ENGLISH

English 1

Grade Level(s): 9

Prerequisites: None

Fees and Materials: Depending on class numbers, some novels may have to be bought or borrowed from the library.

Course Description

This language arts class is designed to expose students to a wide variety of literary and nonfiction genres. It is their first high school English class, and thus focuses on the types of analysis and writing skills necessary to excel in DSA’s college prep high school classes.

English 2

Grade Level(s): 10

Prerequisites: English 1

Fees and Materials: Students may be asked to borrow “choice novels” from a library or purchase them.

Course Description

A year long, required language arts course in which students read literature from a variety of genres with a focus on social, artistic, and literary movements, in order to ascertain prototypical American themes. Students work on composition, comprehension, oral communication, and reference skills. Grammar, vocabulary, and knowledge of literary terms will be emphasized as part of the composition exercises.

World Humanities

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: Students may need to purchase copies of novels to use in class.

Course Description

World Humanities surveys the major forms of expression and aesthetic experience in art, music, and literature from humanity's early history to the Renaissance to better understand our past values and their relationship to our own lives and times. After this class, you'll be able to apply the broad spectrum of human history and its civilizations to your other academic pursuits and discuss ancient civilizations, world religions, philosophy and art with confidence. Each of you has unique insights on culture and you are encouraged to share them as we learn about our shared human history and culture. Additionally, this class will be tailored to the specific instructor’s strengths depending on who teaches the class, and it will often focus on multiethnic and world literature and religion.

Creative Writing

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: None.

Fees and Materials: $25 course fee (technology, printing/paper)

Course Description:

Creative Writing is a year-long course designed for students with a passion for creative writing. In this class, you will be introduced to the major genres and forms of creative writing, including: fiction, poetry, dramatic writing, and creative nonfiction. We will experiment with the art of language, participate in a multitude of writing activities, close-examine the craft of experts, engage in journal exercises, workshop the work of peers, and complete a few major writing projects.

DSA Film Studies

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: None

Course Description

The course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the discipline of film studies. Through screenings, readings, discussion, and writing, students will develop a formal and aesthetic appreciation of film, and acquire a general awareness of film history and its key movements. Students will learn to identify and make meaning of symbol, archetype, perspective, and structure- as well as many other tools that filmmakers use to create meaning. The course will also offer basic theoretical approaches to the various genres of narrative cinema as well as different modes of nonfiction cinema (documentary and avant-garde film practices), so that students will understand how cinema has developed, and how filmmaking reflects the changes in art, technology, and social norms in the world at large. The student will develop and apply critical viewing, thinking and writing skills in the study of film. As an honors class, students should expect a considerable amount of writing, and will be expected to participate in a number of film screenings outside of class time.

AP English Literature

Grade Level: 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: Most of the required novels are available for checkout, unless the number of students requires that some students buy their own novels. $105 AP exam fee.

Course Description

Students learn to approach works of literature (novels, short stories, and a lot of poetry) from the kind of analytical perspective demanded of them in college. Through close attention to the text and carefully written essays, students will learn to develop the language skills to write about literature with the kind of insightful precision demanded of college freshmen.

AP Language & Composition

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: Students purchase their own textbooks. Students may be asked to borrow choice novels from a library or purchase them. $105 AP exam fee.

Course Description

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition is an AP course that high school students can take in place of the Freshman Composition courses offered at most colleges. This course is designed to extend your existing abilities to interpret and analyze a wide range of texts, to write and revise sustained arguments, to carry out independent research, and to integrate multiple sources into your essays. In addition to helping you become a skilled writer who can compose for a variety of purposes and audiences, the course is also designed to enhance your critical thinking skills. The focus is on rhetoric and argument, most clearly evinced in nonfiction.

CU Succeeds Language Arts – S1

CU Course Title – Composition 2

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: $250 per semester plus required CU text materials

Course Description

The skills you learn in this course will be directly transferable to college courses, where you will have to write papers in a wide variety of styles. What college professors value are the kinds of questioning, analyzing, and arguing skills that this course will help you develop. Skilled writers are seekers. The primary objective of this course is to encourage you to question your ideas and the ideas of others and to probe the nature of what it means to be human. You will learn to write with a sense of personal purpose and connection.

Courses taken at CU will appear on both your DPS and CU transcript. These credits will “transfer” to most colleges and universities in the country. They are considered “transfer” credits. It would be just like if you switched colleges between your freshmen and sophomore year. Those credits “transfer” with you. Some highly competitive schools most likely will not accept transfer credits. You need to check on the admissions websites of the schools you are interested in attending.

CU Succeeds Language Arts – S2

CU Course Title – Great Works in British and American Literature

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Required 9th and 10th grade English classes

Fees and Materials: $250 per semester plus required CU text materials

Course Description

This course examines a variety of literary texts, studying the impact of different time periods and cultural movements on the evolving literary traditions. This course will enable students to make personal connections to literature and the arts and to use those connections to broaden their views of the world and to help soliditya sense of self as they prepare to experience the world beyond DSA. It emphasizes the importance of literature as an artistic force in personal, social, cultural and global awareness.

MATHEMATICS

Integrated Math 1

Grade Level(s): 9 (math progression for students may vary)

Prerequisites: None

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator, ruler and protractor

Course Description:

This beginning algebra class starts with a review of statistics and introduces the concepts of normal curves and standard deviation. The remainder of first semester reviews proportional reasoning, solving equations for numbers and variables, and analyzing scatter plots by writing equations for lines of best fit. Second semester begins with systems of equations and inequalities and progresses through exponential relationships, function notation, transformation, and quadratics.

Integrated Math 2

Grade Level(s): 10 (math progression for students may vary)

Prerequisites: Math 1

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator and protractor

Course Description:

In the second year of this integrated curriculum, students develop a formula for calculating the area of regular polygons and the volumes of polygon-based right prisms. Students deepen their understanding of linear equations and inequalities as they solve linear programming problems in two variables to optimize a value. Students expand their understanding of algebra to include quadratic functions. Students connect different forms of quadratic functions to graphs and the special characteristics of quadratic functions while also developing fluency with algebraic skills. Students round out their algebraic work in study of exponent rules and introduction to logarithms. Students also begin to understand the Chi-squared statistic and chi-squared test for comparing two populations.

Integrated Math 3

Grade Level(s): 11 (math progression for students may vary)

Prerequisite: Math 2

Fees and Materials: Drawing compass, straight edge, protractor, and graphing calculator

Course Description

In the third year of this integrated curriculum, students investigate circles and coordinate geometry, incorporating right triangle trigonometry and earlier geometric theorems, and study three- dimensional geometry. Students expand their algebra understanding of algebra to solve linear programming problems in more than two variables, eventually developing and using basic matrix algebra. Students expand their understanding of exponential and logarithmic functions as well as rate of change in non-linear functions and the underlying concepts of instantaneous rate of change versus average rate of change. Students also use combinatorics to develop the binomial distribution.

Pre-Calculus

Grade Level(s): 11, 12

Prerequisites: Advanced Algebra 2

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator

Course Description:

Students develop a deep understanding of functions through investigation of families of functions and formal analysis of functions. In the process, students develop fluency of algebra skills. Students develop understanding of limits, complex numbers, and computations with complex numbers. Students develop understanding of radian measure, circular trigonometry, trigonometric functions, trigonometric identities and their application to modeling real data. Students investigate polar graphing and parametric equations which can model time-dependent situations. Students learn how to graph conic sections as well as the attendant algebraic equations and skills.

Financial Algebra

Grade Level(s) 12

Prerequisites: none

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator and textbook

Course Description:

This class is intended for seniors who scored below a 19 on math on the ACT or below the threshold on the Accuplacer exam designated by the state of Colorado. The intent is to fill math skill level holes before entering college so a math remediation class is not required the student’s freshmen year. Topics in the course include understanding the short-term and long-term implications of interest rates, down payments, stock price evaluation, debt and credit, taxes, insurance, and more. This course prepares students for College Algebra. Students will Accuplace during second semester to determine whether or not this is the correct math placement for senior year.

CU Succeed Math – S1

CU Course Title – College Algebra for Business

Grade Level(s): 12

Prerequisites: Three years of high school mathematics.

Fees and Materials: $250 per semester, graphing calculator, and textbook

Course Description:

Covers the same mathematical topics as College Algebra, MATH 1110, but with business applications. Functions, domains, ranges, graphs, data scatter plots and curve fitting, solving equations and systems of equations, polynomial, rational, exponential and logarithmic functions and other topics, but with business applications.

AP Calculus AB

Grade Level(s) 11, 12

Prerequisites: Pre-Calculus with a grade of “C” or higher.

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator, and textbook. $105 AP exam fee.

Course Description:

In preparation for the AP Calculus AB exam, students study single-variable differential and integral calculus. Learning the rules of differentiation, students model situations and solve real problems with derivatives. Students develop graphical, numerical, and algebraic understanding of derivatives as well as the fluency to move easily between representations. Students then study integral calculus and its connection to differential calculus through the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. A
gain, students develop numerical, graphical and algebraic understanding of antiderivatives, using all representations to model and solve real problems.

AP Calculus BC

Grade Level: 11, 12

Prerequisites: Pre-Calculus with a grade of “C” or higher. Recommended to take AP Calc AB first

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator. Students purchase their own textbooks. $105 AP exam fee.

Course Description

This course is equivalent to college level calculus I and calculus II. The course begins by exploring the foundations of calculus through limits then moves to derivatives, integrals, the fundamental theorem of calculus and series. It is highly recommended that students complete calculus ab prior to taking this course.

AP Statistics

Grade Level: 12

Prerequisites: Pre Calculus

Fees and Materials: Graphing calculator. Students purchase their own textbooks. $105 AP exam fee.

Course Description

This two semester course is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes: exploring data; planning a study; anticipating patterns; and statistical inference.

SCIENCE

Biology

Grade Level(s): 9, 10